Here she is. The Troublemaker. This dog has cost more time and money the past week than … well, than I don’t know what. 3 nights at the vets last week, an ultrasound today, plenty of $, and the upshot is that she’ll probably live forever after all this. Jeesh. (Yes, she’s feeling just fine now, for those of you who are feeling sorry for her. I won’t give you the laundry list of issues, but I know you’ll ask so the answer is she’s going to be fine.) Troublemaker.
Sneak Up list, right? It’s going to be a big one this week, and then we’ll have two to three weeks without a Sneak Up. 🙁 I don’t know if I’m actually capable of not doing a Sneak Up for 3 weeks, but WH is entirely capable of it and thinks it’s a marvelous idea. We will be leaving on vacation next week and gone the week of the Fourth of July as well – thus, no new products to go up. However, Sarah-the-housesitter will be here taking care of Zoe and The Troublemaker and bringing in boxes of yarn every day as it arrives, and Susan-the-Awesome-Assistant will be here packing your orders and getting them out to you while we’re gone. So you can still find plenty of fun things to satisfy your yarn cravings. Indeed, you may look at this week’s list and think spreading it out over 3 weeks is a good idea. Why three weeks if we’re only going to be gone for 2? Because the week we get back, WH will have to put some extra time in on his regular job to catch up from vacation, in addition to doing a lot of photography on all of the things that arrived while we were gone. So I’m guessing the next Sneak Up will be the week of July 16th. Of course earlier if it works. And I’ll be re-stocking some of the regular stuff as it comes in between now and then. (Shhh – did you see that we have ALL of the colors of Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in at one time? I’m sure it’s a fluke, and I’m sure we’ll sell out of something soon, but for a few minutes, they’re all here. And there is a lot of it.)
So on this week’s list for Sneaking Up….
For sure: The Knittery, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Fiesta Boomerang, Chewy Spaghetti, Seacoast Merino, Duets, and Dream in Color. Also, more Kitchener Stitchmarkers, more Counting Bracelets, and more Loopy/Louise/Bart stitchmarkers. I have sock photos of Fiesta, Duets, and Dream in Color to share with you on Wednesday. I have loved knitting with each of them.
For maybe: Posh, Spritely Goods, and Scarlet Fleece (depending on how many photos WH can get done.)
New things coming in between now and when we do our next Sneak Up: The Plucky Knitter (from one of our very own Loopy Groupies!), Urban GypZ (with a cool twisted yarn base), Wollmeise (an indie dyer all the way from Germany and we’re so excited to get her beautiful yarn here), new fabrics in Mrs. Kwitty bags and needleholders, the Maruca Designs fall fabrics (oooohhhh), plus our regular monthly indie-dyer orders and a few other surprises. Lots of boxes to come home to after vacation to look forward to.
So – the contest for the month – tell me about your first job. It’s summertime and many of us had our very first jobs during the summer, right? (Besides babysitting, which I did often, too.) My first summer job was a Disaster with a capital D. I was 14 and I signed up to de-tassle corn. (I lived in Iowa. Everyone de-tassled corn in Iowa in junior high or high school. It was “good money”.) You dressed in long sleeves and long pants so that the cornstalk leaves wouldn’t cut your arms and legs, you walked down the rows of stalks that had grown over your head, and you plucked the tops off of the stalks and tossed them behind you as you went along. When you pulled the tassles out, you frequently got a shower of bugs on you. The aisles held in all of the heat and humidity that the summer had to offer. And it was downright awful. After an hour, my shoulders ached, my shirt was filled with bugs (ok – maybe I exaggerate a bit – but not much) and I was feeling nauseous from all the heat and humidity. So I quit. My very first job, and I got paid for a whopping hour of time. There – now don’t you feel better about YOUR first job? What was it? (Nobody quits after an hour. Your experience had to have been better!) Leave it in the comments and I’ll use the random number generator to pick a Loopy Loot winner this Friday.
Sheri Ihavestuckwithalltherestofmyjobsandworkedhardsincethen-ifonlytoprovethatIcould. 🙂
P.S. Email me if you have Q2 hats/mitts to mail and I will send you my addresss. I don’t want to list it on the blog!
First job, huh? It was working for a run of the mill X mart and I was 18. The only reason why my first job was so late in coming was that I am Canadian and through high school I lived in the States without a working visa.
Anyway, I was a cashier and it was my first real experience with cranky, mean strangers who yelled at you and hurt your feelings for reasons that were out of your control. It was also my first intense crush on a guy much older than myself and who had little to no interest in me. In hindsight, the experience taught me two things, I could never work in retail ever again without getting fired for yelling right back at customers and that I totally need to get a life if I start getting a crush on fellow coworkers because work is the only souce of social interaction I get.
My first summer job was at Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store. I scooped on into the autumn, and we were quite a gang — all went to the same high school. We were the main ice cream store in town, so when it got warm, we were *Busy*. Imagine trying to drag your ice cream scoop through rock hard Rocky Road, with all the marshmallows and almonds. And no air conditioning — with the freezers blasting out hot air at your legs. But it was fun, way back when….
I had forgotten all about babysitting until I was skimming everyone else’s comments. My first “real” job was in a medical back office, and I was 13. My dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Holland (The Netherlands) and I went to the american school. What to do with 200 bored teenagers for 3 months? Put them to work and pay them $2.90 an hour! That first summer I did a lot of filing, shredding, and learning about office politics. It was fun/scary when they sent me out of the room so they could read Classified Documents (they burned them in a coffee can before I was let back in), and fun/tiring biking the 15 miles to work (Holland is very very flat). The next summer I worked as a receptionist in the dental office, making appointments and filing records. I only hung up the phone on an officer once.
My first job was at the tender age of 15 — working at a corner store. The owners adored me (I had babysat their children for 2 years prior) and I worked pretty much ever shift that they had when i wasn’t in school 9I was a rich little 15 year old!!! LOL!)
I nearly got fired one hot summer day (thank goodness they loved me!) — no air conditioning, so I was enjoying a giant Mr. Freezie at the cash register … it was quite melted and would up getting spilled all over the electronic cash register (the number 3 stuck fro the whole summer!)
My first job was as parking lot attendant for a local department store. I was 14 years old and thought it was the greatest thing to sit in a tiny little box listeing to the radio and reading while once in a while taking a ticket and pushing a button to allow the flag to go up so cars could exit. I do rememebr crying after work one day after I realized all my friends had been able to enjoy our local Cherry Festival celebrations while I had the responsibilty of work and had missed out.
You lasted longer than me 🙂 I worked an assembly line….stuffing silly putty into silly putty eggs….my friend and I went in at 8:30, left at noon for lunch break….and NEVER went back. Can you believe we had the nerve to call up and ask for our check to be mailed?!
My first job was as a tutor but that was during the school year and didn’t quite count since it was helping with homework. My second job was an internship at a Broadway theater (I’m in NY) that was required by my high school during school hours so that technically wasn’t a job either. My first real summer job was at an architectural firm after I graduated high school. While my friends were camp counselors screaming at kids from sun up to sun down, I drafted drawings all day long on the computer. The only excitement I had was watching the man in the cube next to me get fired my first week there.
I worked at a grocery store. I was assigned to the area called the service center; it held all the movies to rent, cigarettes, film, and the like. Having to sell cigarettes when my Grandmother had died from smoking related cancer was bad enough. Then there was our HORRIBLE boss. She never worked; she sat in the back room and ate and ate and ate. If you were helping someone and another customer came up to the counter, she’d yell at you to come help them instead of getting up and doing it herself. I made it through the summer and planned on staying on for the school year. I even notified them of my school schedule. They ignored my schedule and put me down to work when I was suppose to be at school. I gave notice right away, but they didn’t believe me and kept scheduling me. It was the only job I have ever had to quit by just plain not showing up for a shift. I at least had the decency to tell them I wouldn’t be there. It’s really not my fault they didn’t listen, right?
First Job was as at a clothing store. My sister worked there previously so I was kinda hired in her place. It was okay work just a lot of standing around and folding clothes. The fun part was doing the displays that was kind of fun. Only worked there a year during high school. Then I went and made furnance parts and rubber brake pads for cars.( the ones you step on inside the car). Both were interesting and learned alot about manufacturing.
Will looking for all the new stuff!!!!
Wow, fun to read all about the first jobs! I’m glad some people liked theirs. Mine was at a Wendy’s, I was a hostess — cleaned tables and took pre-orders when the line was long to speed things up. Unfortunately this was during the gas crisis of the 70’s and the lines were not long very often… so the job was short-lived too. It was a great learning experience, though.
My first job, if you don’t count babysitting or lemonade stands, was at a frozen yogurt shop the summer after my sophomore year of high school. It was an awesome summer job, I got all the frozen yogurt and pizza I could eat – we were right next to a pizza shop and had an informal arrangement with the workers there (that the owners of the places probably didn’t know about!). AND I worked the same shifts as a hotty mcCutepants college boy. Yums all around.
My first job after babysitting was a hostess/waitress. Not an easy job by far, but I learned A LOT! I think everyone shoud work a customer service job some time in their life. It’s great experience and you learn to appreciate the people who also do those jobs. It certainly gives you an interesting view of all kinds of people!
Oh, gosh…my first job was a page at the main branch of the public library…how can that be 25 years ago? Seriously, I’m not that old! I still feel guilty about that half-inch stack of microfiche that I just shoved into the back of the drawer…I couldn’t stand to file one more freakin’ sheet of it. And there was one old guy who used to come in and have us make microfilm prints for him. He had about 3 teeth, rarely bathed, rancid breath, and he ALWAYS asked for the youngest girls to help him. Then he’d stand so close to us that he was basically touching us…ewwww! But other than that…it was a great job for a bookworm like me. 🙂
My first job after the usual babysitting was as a lab tech in the state veterinary lab. I spent my days looking at poop under the microscope for worm eggs, doing blood analysis, and helping the vets with necropsy (animal version of autopsy). Fun! At the time I wanted to be a veterinarian, so I actually liked the job. It sure made for interesting dinnertime conversation!
My first job was as an office assistant… I was twelve, but I did a lot of work! It was in a museum, and I made my own fun when I wasn’t typing or making copies or taking orders for lunch… I also worked for the other resident in the building, a society for preserving historic buildings. It was’t such a bad gig!
My first job was picking strawberries for my grandparents. I must have been about 6 yrs old and I got a nickel a quart. I thought that was big money back then. I have so many great memories though, so I guess it was really “priceless”.
Hmmm. First job job for real was babysitting. In junior high, a friend and I opened up a window washing business and made what we thought were piles of money. We bicycled to jobs around the neighborhood. First job that the federal government knew about was grocery store checker. I loved having to learn all the fruits and vegetables – they didn’t come with code stickers then like they do now!
My first job was far from typical… and I love talking about it because it was just so kooky.
I spent two summers pushing a lawn mower in a cemetery. Two reasons I took the job 1) I loved the reaction from people when they asked where I worked and 2) the guy who hired me was hessitant to hire me because I was a girl, so I had to prove him wrong. I actually kind of miss that job…. there’s something about physical labor that makes it feel like you’ve actually accomplished something during the course of the day. But boy do I have some crazy stories… you meet some interesting people working at the cemetery….
I was a waitress .
I think everyone should be a waitress/waiter at some point .
It has made me a much nicer customer than if I had never been on the other side of the table. Few people work harder or longer.
God Bless them everyone!
My first job was in my family’s hardware store, when I was 12 my family moved from Minneapolis, MN to a small farming town were my parents bought a local hardware store, so I worked at our store for many years, during high school, college and then summers when I was a teacher….if I came home to visit, the only way to visit my folks was to work side by side in the store….smile…
One of my first jobs was picking strawberries in upstate New York. As a teenage a friend of mine convinced me we could make good money doing it. Let’s just say it lasted just a bit longer that your detassling did! Hot, sticky, bug bitten, sore back and sunburn. I still remember it.
Can’t remember if this was my first or second job, but in high school I called people and set up appointments to have their families photographed at Olan Mills. I would sell them a package for a ridiculous low price, which had to be delivered in person by one of our salespeople. Then the salesperson would try to upsell the customer. I absolutely HATED that job, and didn’t last too long. I didn’t like pushing people into buying something they didn’t want, and I still don’t. I guess that’s why I have no patience for telemarketers…
I also had a very short-term job that I quit after one day! It was not my first job though, that was in a plant department in a big downtown department store. We had gardening supplies as well, but being downtown, there was not much call for bedding plants, just “gift” type plants. I built up whopping great strong shoulders from hauling the hanging plants up and down off of the overhead racks to water them – no fancy watering systems, just my the watering can full!
Take care,
My first job was as a waitress at Denny’s. My mom did the payroll there and got me in with the manager. I loved my job, but it was a rough learning process. I killed myself trying to be everywhere for everyone. I didn’t think I’d ever make it through that first few months. But I did and I managed to pay for my senior prom (dress and all!) and then I kept working there to put myself in college. I managed to furnish everything I needed before I got there and then the scholarships paid the rest of the way, all four years. I was so happy to be quit of that job though, since I was the youngest, when a double shift needed covering, you know who they called on. I worked a number of 3pm-6am shifts. That will kill you there. It’s that 2-4am slump that makes you want to peel your eyeballs. I always managed to stay awake though, dancing brooms through pass-through on camera. I’m sure the morning manager had a goood laugh after I worked all night long!
My first job was as a volunteer at Sea World, San Diego. Now this was a volunteer job in the top secret back lots of Sea World. Animal Husbandry was its official title. Yes, I cleaned tanks, more tanks than you could ever imagine, ever. I also helped harvest plankton for food. This involved a motor boat, a big net and lot of upper body stregnth. We took bets on how long the sharks would last in the new tanks. Never long enough to learn anything other than “sharks do not live well in captivity”. We had the cooks turn out a couple of clown fish pizzas when things did not go right. And we all stayed up for days preparing the container that woudl move an Orca from here to there. A GREAT job, would not swap a single day.
Technically, my first job was babysitting. Normal kids, normal pay, normal parents (ok, well semi-normal parents). One day the kids asked me to put a video in and while looking for their selection in the cabinet I came accross a video, left in plain sight, mixed in with the kiddie videos, on how to have sex! That was kinda gross. At least put it in your bedside table… Ok so, I was not going to write about babysitting, but there, thats enough about my early career!
Might be too late–but my first job wasn’t that bad. I worked in the “proof” department of a bank, downtown at night two nights a week, correcting the mistakes people made on their ATM deposits. Like they’d screw up the decimal and say they’d deposited 10000 dollars when really it was 100.00 dollars. I made nighttime minimum wage, which was $3.25. After a year, the supervisor made a big deal of giving me a raise to $3.35–I worked 10 hours a week, and I thought, a one dollar raise??? That’s when I quit.
My first “real” job was at a shoe store. I was a cashier and made $3.35/hour, which was minimum wage at the time. It was either super slow and boring, or so crazy busy I didn’t have time to go to the bathroom. It ended up being just a seasonal job and I wasn’t heartbroken when it ended before I expected it to.
My first job was working for the local vet cleaning the dog and cat kennels every morning at 5 or 6 am and every evening between 5 & 6 pm. I also got to clean the surgical room, wash medicine bottles, mix and dispense medicines. I stayed at this job for 6 yrs. It evolved into assisting with small animal surgeries, vaccinating cattle and hogs (Iowa) and other things to the hogs. It was a great learning experience, but the pay was almost criminal.
My first “real” job was at a grocery store at 17. The first day I worked was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend in a river town – what a nightmare! I did “work” for my aunts and uncles on their tobacco farms before that, though… Pulling tobacco plants and hoeing weeds in the summer, cutting tobacco in late summer, and stripping tobacco in winter. It was actually fun to be around all of my family. I miss them now that I live far away.
My first job was running a program for kids the summer after I graduated high school.
There was a boy and me who did things with these kids. Took them swimming, and did other things that I can’t remember any more. It was a wonderful summer.
My first job was working in the child care room at Richard Simmon’s Anatomy Asylum (a gym). I watched kids while their parents worked out. I was 15. My first paycheck was HUGE. I was able to buy a pack of Big Red gum, Maybelline mascara and some purple eye shadow….. the feeling of making my own money was incredible! LOL
My first job (besides occasional babysitting) was at Burger King. Nothing like coming home smelling like pickles and grease. I met some great people, but geez… I hope I never have to go back to fast food!
i got my first job on my 16th birthday– i woke up in the morning, collected applications from all the stores within a 20 mile radius, and ended up getting a job at the independent bookstore in town.
it was a great store, staffed by an eccentric collection of women. the bookstore owner was grumpy and penny pinching… we used to wear fingerless gloves, hats, and scarves in the winter because she refused to turn up the heat. we hardly ever sold a thing and yet she always had two or three people working together in the tiny store.
the other staff members were a children’s book editor, a garden design/landscaper who worked in the winters, a college student who worked between treks in tibet, and the most colorful co-worker i’ve ever had, a woman who wore one long braid down the middle of her back, raised llamas and alpacas, took off every winter to drive zodiac boats in the antarctic, and would often come to work with a box containing an injured bird and would stop periodically to put water-soaked puppy chow into its beak.
it was quite… a… job! best one i’ve ever had, too!
I began my carreer path as a 10 year old hygenist for my father, the sadistic dentist we all have great big nightmares of. Picture your spotty 4′ 5″ ten year old niece or nephew reaching towards your face with sharp tweaky scrapey things and the huge suck-machine with the sound of a horrible old fashioned drill coming from the next room.
As horrible as this endentured servitude was (and I had no choice in the matter until leaving in a huff/minute/and taxi at the age of 16, leaving home shortly thereafter) it has left me with a deep focus on small things, pride that I never hurt anyone and a real passion for surgical implements in crafting. Honestly, suture scissors are the very best and hemostats should be in everyone’s bag. Next time you go in for surgery, ask for a doggy bag for the scissors and hardware they will just throw away.
My first job (not including the babysitting jobs) was working for Walgreen’s Restaurant at our local mall. I’d never waited tables before. We had these ugly orange & brown plaid, polyester, very itchy, uniforms and matching aprons.
I was not very good at first, very forgetful and so I made sure I wrote everything down. I finally got the hang of it.
I found out after I’d worked there a month that I had waited on my boyfriend’s parents and they didn’t even bother to introduce themselves. They just sat in my section, let me wait on them and left. I don’t even know if they tipped me!
Now they are my gracious in-laws. Still won’t tell me how much they tipped! 😉
To top it all off I had the worst perm in my hair of my life. My sis-in-law over permed me and my hair was like poodle hair! I just wanted to wear a hat.
My first paycheck of $75.00 sorta made it worthwhile…..
My first job was on the cosmetics department of a large department store. I was 15. And a real eager beaver. First days I was not allowed to do anything more than restock the shelves. Fortunately in those days there was not that big choice in deodorants, body lotions, hairsprays as nowadays. There was one thing that is now almost forgotten: dry shampoo. After days of emptying boxes I was allowed to attend to customers. During lunch time even on my own. Then it happened. A lady asked me how it was possible that the dry shampoo she bought the other day didn’t function. I gave it a look, pushed the button a bit… and yes, of course, you guessed it. The push button worked fine with me and the lady was dry shampood all over. Back to restocking the shelves again.
my first job was waitressing at a burger/malt joint. we wore the “diner waitress uniform”: turquoise polyester dresses with snap buttons down the front. it was a ton of fun and good spending money at 15. my parents are somewhat dismayed that 15 years and a couple of expensive college degrees later, im still supplementing the income as a waitress.
My first job was as a cashier at Geauga Lake when I was 14. Since it was really the only place around (other than Sea World) that would hire you at 14, everyone I know worked there. My best friend lived across the street from me and convinced me to work at the front end of the park because that’s where he was going to work and we could get the same schedule and car pool (since neither one of us was old enough to drive). Sounded good to me. How wrong I was though. Had I known that I was going to be spending my summer turning into jerkey (I was either cramped in a little ticket booth when it was 90 degrees outside and it had no air or stuck out in a booth in the parking lot, again with no air) I might have changed my mind. The only perk to that summer was I got free admission to the park and discount season passes for my friends and family. Oh, and I won “Cashier of the Month” one month and won myself a 19″ tv!
OHH besides babysitting, my first “Real Job” was working at a Rite Aid Pharmacy-back before pharmacy techs had to be trained. I was a tech and I had the silliest boss ever. He would play “Play that funky music white boy” and dance all over the pharmacy. It was actually a really fun job. I enjoyed MOST of the pharmacists I worked with, except for one but that’s way too long of a story! Anyway I still wonder why I never changed my major in college to pharmacy (oh yeah, it was all the chemistry I was terrified of)
My first job was at the local movie theatre in a small Texas town one hour north of Dallas. It was my first year in Texas, moving from FL. Let me tell you, all that greasy popcorn, smelly hot dogs, and big ole’ pickles really made you smell awful! Imagine being 15 and taking tickets for all the “cool” kids on Friday and Saturday nights, wreeking of the grossest food smells and wearing an awful long sleeve button down shirt with the silliest purple bow tie! What a great way to impress all my new classmates, huh?!
My first job was as a counter girl at a fried chicken restaurant in Waco, Texas. I went home every night smelling like chicken and feeling greasy. This was also the summer of the triple murders at Lake Waco (the book “Careless Whispers” details the tragedy). One evening, the cook and I stayed late talking (flirting) in the back parking lot, and my mom totally freaked. Next thing I knew, I was being escorted home by the cops who all knew my good-for- nothing brother (he was a bit of a trouble maker). I was “laid off” at the end of the summer because I couldn’t work Friday nights during football season- band- and I never went back to the place again.
My first job (other than working for my father) was as a clerk in the Prudential Ins. regional office in Houston, Tx. I was 19 yrs old and I think I made about $250/mo. I spent my time coloring insurance territory boundary lines on maps of large cities in the Central US, like St. Louis; so even though I’ve never been there, I still remember many streets, etc. 40 yrs. later. I was also impressed because we got free lunch in the company cafeteria. Even that long ago, it took over 40 min. to commute from east Houston over to the Hermann Park area where the office was. I learned to drive a stick shift Volkswagen on the drive to and from work. Our brand new VW cost $1900 dollars-car payments were $60/mo. Now I feel like my mom, talking about how cheap things were-including gasoline at $.19/gal!! Yes, that is CENTS.
I am going with 4742.
Happy anniversary!